This was the most ambitious comic page I’ve ever done and it took SO many hours. So, so many.

Josh gave me direction as far as what Scurryport should look like, but I also had some ideas of my own. For one, I felt that, given the history of the city (which you can find on our Facebook page “Demon Plague Quarantine Zone”), it should look very slap-dash, as though it were built by people who really didn’t know much about architecture. This was fairly easy for me, since I really don’t know much about architecture. Additionally, I figured the place is populated by people that are literally trapped in Hell, so the inside of the protective dome should be disguised an Earth-like sky to make the denizens feel more at home. I also thought that beautification would be important to these people, especially in the poorer districts, hence the colourful paint on the buildings.

No word of a lie, I was reading this comic while listening to an 80's mix on Spotify, and Bon Jovi's "Runaway" just happened to be playing when I got to this scene, and he sang "Oooh she's a little runaway" just as I saw the last panel.

One of the fun parts about working on this story with Josh is that he lets me play around and help expand the world he’s been developing for most of his life. For example, while this page called for an establishing shot of the temple, I added the statues in front, calling them the “Weeping Guard”. From there, Josh and I developed a brief history for them, cementing them in the lore of Kalidak: They are the guardians of the the goddess Zulida. While they are depicted as giant elves here, inspired by the now-extinct Tru'ells, other sects of Zulida worshipers represent them in entirely different forms, but always shown with tears streaming from their eyes.

In my head the sword, Angelo, had to be elegant, yet brutal. From that I determined that dwarves would have forged it, and that’s where the final design came from. Another version had it made entirely of flesh, and while it looked pretty cool, it just didn’t fit.

HUGE thanks for the amazing colours on this cover to Ashley M Witter (of Squarriors and Scorch fame). She’s an extremely skilled artist and pretty awesome person, and I highly suggest looking at her work over at http://www.ashleywitter.com/ and read her newest comic http://ccj.smackjeeves.com/comics/2555309/cigarettes-carrot-juice/.